Justification:
There is little information on abundance and none on trends in abundance for this species. It is not believed to be uncommon but it is potentially vulnerable to low-level threats and a 30% global reduction over three generations cannot be ruled out (criterion A).

Although sometimes depicted as a North Atlantic endemic, this species is probably continuously distributed in deep waters across the tropical and temperate Atlantic Ocean, both north and south of the equator (Mead 1989; MacLeod et al. 2006). Most records are from the east and Gulf coasts of North America, from New York to Texas, but Gervais' beaked whales are also known from several of the Caribbean islands. This is the most commonly-stranded beaked whale in the southeastern United States. In the eastern Atlantic, they are known from Ireland to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. There is only one record of this species entering the Mediterranean, and it is considered a vagrant (Podesta et al. 2005). There are also strandings at Ascension Island in the central South Atlantic (Mead 1989), and along the coast of Brazil (de Oliveira Santos et al. 2003). There is speculation that its Southern Hemisphere distribution could extend to Uruguay and Angola .

No estimates of abundance exist for the species; however, estimates indicate that 106 (CV=41%) beaked whales of the genus Mesoplodon occur in the northern Gulf of Mexico, considered to be either M. densirostris or M. europaeus (Mullin and Fulling, 2004). Based on the frequency with which they strand, they are presumed to be relatively common in waters along the east coast of North America.

The favored habitat of Gervais' beaked whales appears to be warm temperate and tropical waters (Norman and Mead 2001). Like other members of the genus, the species prefers deep waters based on the presence of prey from such habitats in stomach contents and a lack of sightings near shore (Mead 1989). Strandings and the few possible sightings suggest that the species prefers tropical and subtropical waters (MacLeod et al. 2006).

Like other members of the genus, Gervais’ beaked whales are known to feed primarily on squid, although some fish may be taken as well (Norman and Mead 2001). There is also a record of a mysid shrimp found in the stomach of a stranded specimen. Stable isotope analysis has found that this species feeds at a similar trophic level to other Mesoplodon species with which it is sympatric, but at lower trophic level than Cuvier’s beaked whale which suggests that it feeds on smaller prey than this latter species (MacLeod et al. 2005).

This species, like other beaked whales, is likely to be vulnerable to loud anthropogenic sounds, such as those generated by navy sonar and seismic exploration (Cox et al. 2006).

In particular, several atypical mass strandings of beaked whales, including Gervais' beaked whales, were associated with naval activities: mid to late 1980s on the Canary Islands (Waring et al. 2006), in March 2000 on the Bahamas (Rowles et al. 2000, Anonymous 2001) and again in September 2002 during a naval NATO manoeuvre involving low frequency sonar around the Canaries (Vidal pers. comm.).

Evidence from stranded individuals of several species, including Mesoplodon europaeus, indicates that they have swallowed discarded plastic items, which may eventually lead to death (e.g. Scott et al. 2001).

Direct hunting has never been associated with this species. Pervasive gillnet and longline fisheries throughout the species' range raises concern that some bycatch is likely. Even low levels of bycatch might cause unsustainable impacts on this group of naturally rare cetaceans.

Predicted impacts of global climate change on the marine environment may affect this species of whale, although the nature of impacts is unclear (Learmonth et al. 2006).